JEE (Main) online examination held

The second phase of the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) was held on Sunday. The test is being held in 258 cities across the country and abroad in two shifts of three hours.

The answer key for online and offline test, being organised by the Central Board of Secondary Education, will be released on April 24. An estimated 1.5 lakh aspirants took the online test.

Although there has been an increase in the online enrolment this year there has been an overall dip in the enrolment for JEE (Main) examination, according to coaching centre professionals. Pawan Kumar, deputy director, FIIT-JEE, from where 400 students in Chennai took the online test, said the difficulty level of the paper was the same as in the offline mode. Students appeared to have faced the same level of difficult questions in Maths and Physics, but found Chemistry slightly better.

On the shift to online mode, Rajshekhar Ratrey, VP Educational Content, Toppr.com said access to smart phones as a learning tool had helped students. He estimates that in 2019, 15% of the aspirants would opt for online test mode.

Uday Nath Mishra, the chief academic officer of BasicFirst said students from tier 2 cities are getting comfortable with technology.

The first phase of the 6th edition of JEE (Main) 2018 offline exam was held on April 8, for approximately 10,43,739 lakh candidates registered for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes in NITs, IIITs and centrally-funded technical institutions. JEE (Main) is the eligibility test for JEE (Advanced) for admission to the undergraduate programmes in the IITs.

JEE (Advanced) to be held on May 20, will be a fully computer-based test.